Prof. Poccia's Home Page

This document (est. 1/95) is a substitute for a FAQ-OM (Frequently Asked Questions Of Me, such as "What are you teaching this year?", "ARE you teaching this year?", "Do we have lab this week?", "Why do you work with sea urchins, anyway?", "Aren't they poisonous?", "What diseases are you trying to cure?", "Do you still play in a band?", "Where?", "Where are the bathrooms located in the Life Sciences building?"). This document contains information about things for which I am responsible, some pictures, a few sites on the Internet that I like, and answers to some but not all of these questions. It is currently being sporadically revised. At the end of this page, you will find various ways of contacting me. Don't be shy, unless you are trying to sell something. Then you will find that I don't make pledges over the phone and besides I'm not home.

Amherst College Courses

These are some courses I teach with the syllabi from the last or current offerings. All biology courses are with laboratories. Click on the course number for more information..

• Cell Structure and Function: Spring 2007 (27 students) BIOL. 29.
  • An analysis of the structure and function of cells in plants, animals, and bacteria. Topics to be discussed include the cell surface and membranes, cytoskeletal elements and motility, cytoplasmic organelles and bioenergetics, the interphase nucleus and chromosomes, mitosis, meiosis, and cell cycle regulation. Three classroom hours and three hours of laboratory per week. Requisite: Biology 12 or 19 and completion of, or concurrent registration in, Chemistry 12.
• Developmental Biology: Spring 2006 (14 students) BIOL. 22.
  • A study of the development of animals, leading to the formulation of the principles of development, and including an introduction to experimental embryology and developmental physiology. Four classroom hours and four hours of laboratory per week. Requisite: Biology 19. Limited to two sections of 24 students each.
• Molecules, Genes and Cells: Fall 2006 with Profs. Goutte and Emerson (84 students) BIOL. 19.
  • An introduction to the molecular and cellular processes common to life. A central theme is the genetic basis of cellular function. Four classroom hours and four laboratory hours per week. Prior completion of Chemistry 11 and 12 is strongly recommended.
• First-Year Seminar, Improvisational Thinking: Fall 2006 (16 students). FYS 6.
  • Open to first-semester students. We will explore improvisation as a way of thinking in diverse fields. Click above for more details. Students will be asked to read articles and books on improvisation, listen to performances, write several evaluations of in-class performances, and prepare a term paper on one improvisational activity in depth. Students will have opportunities to improvise.
• Seminar in Developmental Biology: Fall 2005 (7 students) BIOL 57.
  • Topic: Cloning and Assisted Reproduction. Considerable popular interest in cloning of mammalian embryos and in various forms of assisted reproduction has developed recently, in particular from press releases or political pronouncements, often accompanied by much misunderstanding and sensationalism. We will examine several topics such as stem cell research, therapeutic and reproductive cloning, nuclear reprogramming, successes and failures of current technology, ethical issues, and techniques to increase human fertility such as in vitro fertilization and hormonal therapy. Emphasis is on readings from current literature and student presentations. Three classroom hours per week. Requisite: Biology 22, 24, 25 or 29.
    
    

Research Interests

My research concerns nuclear transformations of the sea urchin sperm during spermatogenesis (when the male germ line nucleus is globally silenced to form the sperm nucleus) and following fertilization (when the egg reactivates the sperm nucleus to form the male pronucleus which contributes one half of the new zygote's genome). Current work focusses on the formation of the nuclear envelope using a cell-free system.

• To find out more about work in my lab, some recent publications, pictures of our scientists and related links, click on POCCIA LAB.
  
  

Musical Performances

When I am not in the office, in the lab or at home, you might find me playing baritone sax, clarinet or bass clarinet. Click GIGS below for upcoming performances and a few recorded samples. Come and enjoy some jazz and support live music everywhere!

• GIGS .
  
  
• Learn jazz improvisation on the Internet with A Jazz Improvisation Primer by Marc Sabatella.
• Check out Laird Nelson's great home page and guide to jazz!
  
  

Miscellaneous Information

• In general sea urchins are not poisonous, although the genus with which most vacationing New Englanders are familiar (Diadema, the black urchin with long, sharp spines from the Caribbean) is irritating when stepped upon (and irritated to be stepped upon). One of the urchins with which we usually work (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) is considered a delicacy in Japan.
• Other species, such as this one in Rapa Nui (Easter Island) or these from the Greek Islands, are more fun to visit.
• Sea urchins are full of gonads (five each) and thus one individual can produce several million eggs or several billion sperm, which it will yield with pleasure upon injection of a small amount of 0.5M KCl. Thus they are convenient for reproductive studies.
• There are two sets of bathrooms in the McGuire Life Sciences building LSB. Ladies rooms are actually new. Men must use the old bathrooms of Merrill Science Center. We are constantly monitoring the new building for signs of brown-banded cockroaches (Supella longipalpa) brought over from the old building (Webster) since they are no longer held in check by the Department's free-living and wide-ranging gecko. The only vermin sighted so far are these.